Although DMK has been keeping the party on the limelight through its latest initiative of aiding the affected and vulnerable people in the wake of the lockdown, the developments from the intra-party circle have been stirring up the furor among its leaders and functionaries.

Recently, one of DMK's Deputy General Secretaries VP Duraisamy has shocked the party's high command by meeting Tamil Nadu BJP Chief Murugan who is the active rival of the DMK. His meeting was unanticipated and had signaled that Duraisamy would be switching the side to the saffron camp to exemplify his dissent to the Tamil Nadu's opposition party.

It was speculated that Duraisamy could have approached the opposite side of the aisle after his candidacy for Rajya Sabha was declined by the party's leadership. The dissent leader has hoped that the party would award him a ticket for Rajya Sabha as the candidate from the Arundathiyar community. The DMK leadership has, on Wednesday, decided to issue a notice to Duraisamy on his meet with the BJP state president.

File photo: A collage of Anbazhagan (L) and DMK President MK Stalin

Along with the shocking development, DMK's top secretary has directly asked MK Stalin on the requirement of Indian political strategist Prashant Kishor and his IPAC political team for the upcoming legislative elections. According to our sources, DMK President Stalin has recently convened a virtual meet with the district secretaries for taking stock of the relief measures given to the affected people through the party's initiative 'Ondrinaivom Vaa'.

During the meet, party's secretary for Chennai west district J Anbazhagan has said that the party would assume the power in the state in the 2021 elections. By citing that the people's faith in the party would lead Stalin to take over as Chief Minister, he asked the current opposition leader on why the party needs Prashant Kishor and his team to shape the strategy.

Most of the district secretaries who took part in the meeting had backed Anbalazhagan's notion through silence and with the view of avoiding intra-party dissents, Stalin, who hasn't expected the notion against Prashant Kishor, has asserted the secretaries that Kishor's IPAC team would be used to document and pile up the on-ground statistics concerning the elections and it won't play any role in the party's administration or in finalizing the candidates.

File photo: A collage of Stalin and Prashant Kishor

In February 2020, DMK President Stalin had officially announced that the party has signed a deal with Prashant Kishor's Indian Political Action Committee (IPAC) to strategize the political agenda for DMK in 2021 legislative elections.

Since then, there has been the presence of the dissent in the party over the induction of IPAC, and the critics, who claimed that the party has a strong party and voter base across the state, has questioned the need for corporate-level advocacy. According to the reports, Prashant Kishor has a strong role in formulating and rolling out the party's new initiative Ondrinaivom Vaa.